Restored faith in humanity (and cab drivers)

Hello, long time reader, first time thread starter..

I thought I should share an incident with you from yesterday. I was riding home down towards Rotherhithe and I came off my bike at speed after catching my wheel on something as I jumped between a slow rider and a black cab.

I was on the deck with the cab parked over my bike (he stopped in time before any real damage was done to me or my bike) and the cabbie jumped out and asked if I was alright. I said I thought I was fine (I wasn't) then started to apologise to him as essentially I had cut him up. We were both visibly shaken and he then pulled his cab over, then insisted he drive me and my bike home.

He drove me all the way home to Catford. We had a nice chat; he dropped me off, shook hands then went his way.
The bloke was pretty shocked at the fact he could have run me over, and I was pretty angry at my own stupid riding - mainly for the affect I had on this poor bloke

Whilst chatting to him realised that his biggest fear was knocking riders down, and it seemed that no matter what he did to drive safe they constantly put themselves in danger around him (blind spots etc)

The whole incident has restored my faith in humanity, although my leg is now f’cked and I think I have slight concussion – my lid took fair whack.

You say you're espousing kind words about cabbies after a whack to the head? Well a cabbie gave me a lift once, and I was actually just hitchhiking. He dropped me to where I was going, and all he said was, "life goes round that way". I think they hate cyclists generally, but I don't hate them, because of that one guy.

Hi Larryred.

Good post, I think that we all do stupid things on the road sometimes that we instantly regret, hopefully that's lesson learned for you!?

It's good to hear some positive stories to balance the negative that come up so often.

I don't know what GA2G is talking about. Cabbies, like all ppl are a differing bunch. Good to see you got to meet some nice ones.

Whilst chatting to him realised that his biggest fear was knocking riders down, and it seemed that no matter what he did to drive safe they constantly put themselves in danger around him (blind spots etc)

I bet! This applies to the majority of drivers in London I'm sure. And as fear leads to anger, it makes a lot of angry people on the roads.

I agree with the fact that their are good and bad people in all walks of life, I just was blown away by the kindness of this bloke. Maybe London made me forget most people are nice.

Now if I can find a bus driver with some common sense....

Cabbie-loving. I never thought I'd live long enough to witness the phenomenon, but here it is, right here in this thread. Lol.

i stopped and changed a tyre for man at elephant, despite knowing he didn't have atube or pump so probably deserved to be walking home to clapham. i gave me my spare tube. he was very grateful.

I once bought some track bars off ebay and when i went to pick them up from the seller there was a black cab parked in the drive way. Turned out he was a cab driver by day and raced on the track at the weekend. He had a great collection of road and track bikes. The last thing he said to me as I left was, "Watch out for those cab drivers, they're dangerous!" Haha!

seeing as you live in Catford...

http://www.londonfgss.com/thread7849.html#post221461

ha! The cat would just get stolen....

i stopped and changed a tyre for man at elephant, despite knowing he didn't have atube or pump so probably deserved to be walking home to clapham. i gave me my spare tube. he was very grateful.

pj-loving. I never thought I'd live long enough to witness the phenomenon, but here it is, right here in this thread. Lol.

I'm gonna tell Larry. Plagiarism.

Seeing as we're giving it some lovin'.

Slowing up coming to some lights the other day, on the inside of a couple of vans, I was about to unclip as it was narrow, when a white van folded in his mirror so I could get through.

Almost fell off in surprise.